El Toro
El Toro is a high-speed popular wooden coaster in the Plaza del Carnaval area of Six Flags Great Adventure. It is a neighbor to the Rolling Thunder coaster and the record-breaking Kingda Ka stratacoaster. Ride history In 1995, Six Flags opened Viper, a TOGO mega heartline roller coaster at the park. Nine years later, in 2004, the coaster was closed and demolished the following year, except for the station. Shortly after Viper's demolition, Six Flags announced El Toro on September 28, 2005 along with Bugs Bunny National Park, a play area for children themed after the Looney Tunes. It was also announced that Frontier Adventures (the area where Viper was) would be remodeled into Plaza del Carnaval, a Mexican-style area. The ride's lift hill was topped five days before Christmas 2005 (December 20) and testing began on Memorial Day Weekend 2006. The ride had a surprise soft opening on June 11, 2006, and the following day, on the morning of Monday, June 12, 2006, El Toro made its official debut at Six Flags Great Adventure with a grand opening ceremony. Ride synopsis After the bull-like train departs from the station (themed after a Spanish mission), the vehicle turns the left and passes under the ride's structure (aka headchopper) and starts to slowly ascend up the 181-foot lift hill. After reaching the top, the ride then slowly turns 180 degrees to the left. Then, the vehicle speeds 70mph down the 176-foot main drop of the ride. The ride then travels up a 112-foot camelback hill, followed by another camelback hill twelve feet shorter. The vehicle then travels downwards into a 180-degree right overbanked turn, followed by another overbanked turn upwards to the left. The ride then goes through a small dip that speeds past the station and the lakeside. The train then makes a shorter turn that goes up a smaller hill over the neighboring Rolling Thunder, where riders experience extreme amounts of airtime. After coming down the drop, the train snakes its way through several turns and twists through the infield for Rolling Thunder, before making a grand finish over several small S turn hills and into the brake system. Trivia Records *The ride is the world's fastest wooden coaster. *It is the third tallest wooden coaster. *It also has the longest drop and steepest drop on any wooden coaster in the world. *El Toro is the only "Plug and Play" wooden coaster in the USA and one of four worldwide. Statistics *El Toro translates into ''the bull ''in Spanish. *When the train reaches the top of the lift hill, the ride slows down, but is barely noticable from a rider's point of view. *The ride is Plaza del Carnaval's main attraction. *In 2010, one of the two trains was refurbished to advertise Stride gum. The train was completely covered in gum advertisements, with each car advertising a completely different flavor from another. The advertisements remained on the car for the 2011 season, but were removed immediately at the start of the 2012 season. **Quickly after the Stride advertisements were removed from the train, advertisements for the new (at the time) Kia Soul were painted onto the train. *El Toro's wheelchair access area was formerly Viper's main exit. *Also much like Viper, El Toro begins when the train makes a left turn, goes up the lift hill, and then makes another left turn. Awards Coaster of the Week *The attraction won Coaster of the Week for the Week of May 5, 2013 - May 11, 2013. *It was the first coaster from Six Flags Great Adventure to win the title. Golden Ticket Awards: Best New Ride for 2006 *In the 2006 Golden Ticket Awards for Best New Ride, El Toro won third place, losing to Holiday World's The Voyage. Golden Ticket Awards Mitch Hawker's Best Roller Coaster Poll Photo Gallery eltoroseconddrop.JPG|A train passes through the ride's second drop. stridegumtrain_eltoro.jpg|Riders board the Stride gum train from the 2011-2012 season. Category:Six Flags Great Adventure Category:2006 Category:Coaster of the Week Category:Plaza del Carnaval Category:Flash Pass Category:Rollercoasters